E-PAPER

Back to the Future?

Remember the DeLorean, the gull-winged star of the Back to the Future movie series? Well, if the reports out of the US are to believed, the DeLorean is back, and “re-amped” to be an electric vehicle.

The original DeLorean was built in Ireland, and there were all kinds of innuendo and rumor-mongering surrounding the car and its maverick automaker John Zachary DeLorean, including his arrest for drug involvement. This was a charge he successfully defended using particularly smart legal procedures.

EV DeLorean

Texas entrepreneur Stephen Wynne purchased the name and remaining parts inventory in 1995 and started the current “DeLorean Motor Company (DMC)”. Since 2007, around 40 DeLoreans were produced from the spare parts. With the car now a cult classic, DMC hopes to immortalize the company with an EV powered DeLorean.

The EV power comes from the Epic EV company, which has produced a 200 BHP electric motor which is being engineered to fit into new DeLoreans, and retro-fitted to existing vehicles.

DeLorean plans to market the new DMC EV in the US in 2013 after assessing the prototypes currently being manufactured.

The original DMC 12 sold for USD 12,000 in 1981, but the new DMC EV will have a USD 100,000 ticket.